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For the first time since its founding in 1943, Ikea is making it possible to shop for a piece of its furniture in a store other than its own. Historically, Ikea has run a solely direct-to-consumer business model, selling its wares exclusively through its iconic big blue box stores and via its website. Now, though, the company is breaking that mold through a new partnership with Best Buy. Beginning in fall 2025, small Ikea kiosks will begin popping up in Best Buy stores in Florida and Texas, combining Ikeas signature room-specific furnishings with Best Buys range of home appliances. The move represents another step in Ikeas yearslong plan to diversify and expand its retail footprint. In 2025, that looks like finding new ways to appear in physical storefronts without the investment required for a typical 300,000-square-foot Ikea behemoth. [Image: Ikea] A one-stop shop for your dream kitchen According to the company, Ikeas cross-brand retail experience will launch in 10 stores throughout Florida and Texas. Each will feature 1,000-square-foot Ikea storefronts that showcase inspirational kitchen and laundry room settings, including embedded Best Buy appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, microwaves and washers and dryers. Both Ikea representatives and Best Buy employees will be available to help customers plan their spaces and order the items on display. The Ikea display items will not be warehoused at the Best Buy sites, but customers can place orders through the Ikea representatives for shipping and in-home delivery. In a press release, Ikea shared that the goal of the collaboration is to create a one-stop destination for customers to design their dream kitchen, storage area, or laundry space. The Ikea growth strategy in the U.S. is to create a more accessible, easy, and convenient shopping experience for many people, says Rob Olson, chief operating officer for Ikea U.S. Physical expansion takes time, and by partnering with Best Buy, we can enter markets sooner, introducing new customer meeting points at a faster pace. It also allows us to penetrate existing markets in a much deeper way, as we can open shop-in-shops focused on how consumers like to shop, [putting] Ikea closer to where they live in the process. Ikea’s retail experiments Since 2018, Ikea has experimented with a series of small-format stores that deliver a pared-down version of the brands physical retail experience. These plan-and-order points with pickup typically include a small storefront with a few popular Ikea items and a team of staffers dedicated to helping customers plan and order furnishings for big design projects. According to Olson, Ikea had opened 10 such locations by the end of fiscal year 2024, and its already cut the ribbon on six additional locations in 2025; more will debut before the end of the year. In an interview with RetailSpaces last year, Olson referred to these new-format stores as an avenue for the brand to literally get closer to its consumers, considering that Ikea’s large locations often require fans to travel out of their way to browse in-person. By opening shops-in-a-shop through Best Buy, it looks like Ikea is pursuing another opportunity to show up where its customers already are.
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E-Commerce
If you sit on the terraced steps at the newly-rebuilt Wagner Park on the Manhattan waterfront, looking out at the Statue of Liberty, you probably wont know that theres an 18-foot-tall flood wall hidden under your feet. The small park, which just opened after an 18-month renovation, is one piece of a larger, $1.7 billion system of flood protection being installed in New York City. Most of the park now sits around 10 feet higher than it did in the past, with the hidden wall high enough to hold back water in a storm surge. Under the central lawn, a 63,000-gallon stormwater cistern holds rain in heavy storms, then recycles the water to irrigate the park. On the other side of the wall, near the Hudson River, rain flows through gardens and into an infiltration system that releases it slowly to help avoid floods. [Photo: Battery Park City Authority] You can engineer these solutions with large floodwalls everywhere, says Raju Mann, president and CEO of Battery Park City Authority, the public benefit corporation that manages urban planning in the area. But here, we took a more careful approach. How do we have a great open space that also has flood protection in itnot how do we just build a flood protection project? [Image: BPCA] From the beginning, the design team knew that they wanted to avoid exposing the floodwall as much as possible. In a few spots in the park, tunnels underground meant that it wasnt possible to go down to the bedrock, and the wall is exposed. But most of it is completely hidden. In other parts of the park, flood gates integrated into pathways can pop up in an emergency, but otherwise arent noticeable. [Photo: Battery Park City Authority] Its a beautiful waterfront, says Gonzalo Cruz, vice president and principal for landscape architecture and urban design at AECOM, the engineering firm that worked on the design. We want people to feel very connected to its experience and how to navigate the park, he says. “Back in the day, when mechanisms for flood protection were put into place, they were erected without any consideration for how people use these spaces. Were rethinking the way we think about open space and how we design around infrastructure. The redesigned park feels larger than it previously did, Mann says, with more outdoor rooms and space for concerts and other performances. It will also have a new energy-efficient pavilion with community space where nonprofits can have classes, and a rooftop terrace. Gardens through the park are designed with native plants. The paving materials were chosen to help reduce the urban heat island effect. The solar-powered lighting in the park is DarkSky compliant to reduce the impact of light pollution on wildlife. [Photo: Battery Park City Authority] The plan for the transformation started more than a decade ago, after Hurricane Sandy devastated lower Manhattan. The storm surge reached 13 feet at Battery Park, at the southern tip of the island. Streets and subway tunnels were flooded. The power went out for days. Some offices closed for weeks. A hospital had to evacuate patients. Two residents drowned in a basement apartment in the East Village. Wagner Park sits next to the Battery, but at a higher elevation. It avoided flooding during Sandy. But its in the 100-year flood plain. The city recognized that major storms are becoming more likely because of climate changeboth storm surges and heavy rain. And it knew that the park needed to be better protected. The new design is based on flood levels that are possible in the 2050s as the sea level rises. [Photo: Battery Park City Authority] The floodwall will connect to other projects to the north and south. Collectively, the new infrastructure will help make it less likely that the surrounding neighborhoods flood. Thats especially important now, Mann says, as the federal government is pulling back from climate action. As we’re getting less serious as a country about managing our greenhouse gas emission, then we need to get more serious about how we actually adapt to a change in climate, he says. I think it’s going to put more and more pressure on places to think about how do we actually grapple with the reality that increasingly looks like. And with some optimism, meaning, can we actually design better places? I think that this project, and other projects getting delivered now, provides some optimism that climate change adaptation doesn’t need to be just taking your medicine. It can actually be better space.
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E-Commerce
A new 3D-printed model takes advantage of the design of the Nintendo Switch 2’s snap-on magnetic controllers by turning the video game console into a french fry holder.The GamiFries rig has magnetic connectors that allow the Switch 2’s controllers and screen to snap on in two modes, handheld and controller.It’s built to hold a medium-size order of fries, with a circular carve-out thats perfectly positioned to show the McDonald’s golden arches logo. An anonymous user with no other post history uploaded the model as a free download with fair-use promotional images in McDonald’s red and yellow.[Image: user7R135/MakerWorld]“We’re fans of 3D-printed models and how we can use them to bring ideas to life, especially for small-scale fabrication,” the creator behind the model told Fast Company in an email. “You can have an idea and suddenly it becomes a product. Then you have to hope that people find it funny or useful.”The Switch 2 has inspired a host of 3D-printed accessories on sites like MakerWorld since Nintendo released the console in June. The Switch 2 sold 1.6 million units in the U.S. in one month, making it the fastest-selling gaming hardware in U.S. history, and it’s become the fastest-selling Nintendo console of all time globally. [Image: user7R135/MakerWorld]GamiFries joins gaming chopsticks holders, a Pizza Hut video game pizza warmer, and Nintendo Switch soda cups as the latest innovation in gaming-snack accessories, a novelty category well suited for fast food like french fries. It’s also especially well suited for streamers.A 2023 U.K. report by the entertainment wiki hosting site Fandom found “gamers are 50% more likely than the average person to value taste over nutrition,” while gamers’ top snack purchases trend toward salty (41%) over sweet (33%).Seems like gamers might just be natural spokespeople for fast-food and snack brands that want to get their products in front of consumers.
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E-Commerce
When President Donald Trump announced in early 2025 that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement for the second time, it triggered fears that the move would undermine global efforts to slow climate change and diminish Americas global influence. A big question hung in the air: Who would step into the leadership vacuum? I study the dynamics of global environmental politics, including through the United Nations climate negotiations. While its still too early to fully assess the long-term impact of the U.S.s political shift when it comes to global cooperation on climate change, there are signs that a new set of leaders is rising to the occasion. World responds to another U.S. withdrawal The U.S. first committed to the Paris Agreement in a joint announcement by President Barack Obama and Chinas Xi Jinping in 2015. At the time, the U.S. agreed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2025 and pledged financial support to help developing countries adapt to climate risks and embrace renewable energy. Some people praised the U.S. engagement, while others criticized the original commitment as too weak. Since then, the U.S. has cut emissions by 17.2% below 2005 levelsmissing the goal, in part because its efforts have been stymied along the way. Just two years after the landmark Paris Agreement, Trump stood in the Rose Garden in 2017 and announced he was withdrawing the U.S. from the treaty, citing concerns that jobs would be lost, that meeting the goals would be an economic burden, and that it wouldnt be fair because China, the worlds largest emitter today, wasnt projected to start reducing its emissions for several years. Scientists and some politicians and business leaders were quick to criticize the decision, calling it shortsighted and reckless. Some feared that the Paris Agreement, signed by almost every country, would fall apart. But it did not. In the United States, businesses such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Tesla made their own pledges to meet the Paris Agreement goals. Hawaii passed legislation to become the first state to align with the agreement. A coalition of U.S. cities and states banded together to form the United States Climate Alliance to keep working to slow climate change. Globally, leaders from Italy, Germany, and France rebutted Trumps assertion that the Paris Agreement could be renegotiated. Others from Japan, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand doubled down on their own support of the global climate accord. In 2020, President Joe Biden brought the U.S. back into the agreement. Now, with Trump pulling the U.S. out againand taking steps to eliminate U.S. climate policies, boost fossil fuels, and slow the growth of clean energy at homeother countries are stepping up. On July 24, 2025, China and the European Union issued a joint statement vowing to strengthen their climate targets and meet them. They alluded to the U.S., referring to the fluid and turbulent international situation today in saying that the major economies . . . must step up efforts to address climate change. In some respects, this is a strength of the Paris Agreementit is a legally nonbinding agreement based on what each country decides to commit to. Its flexibility keeps it alive, as the withdrawal of a single member does not trigger immediate sanctions, nor does it render the actions of others obsolete. The agreement survived the first U.S. withdrawal, and so far, all signs point to it surviving the second one. Whos filling the leadership vacuum From what Ive seen in international climate meetings and my teams research, it appears that most countries are moving forward. One bloc emerging as a powerful voice in negotiations is the Like-Minded Group of Developing Countries, a group of low- and middle-income nations that includes China, India, Bolivia, and Venezuela. Driven by economic development concerns, these countries are pressuring the developed world to meet its commitments to both cut emissions and provide financial aid to poorer countries. China, motivated by economic and political factors, seems to be happily filling the climate power vacuum created by the U.S. exit. In 2017, China voiced disappointment over the first U.S. withdrawal. It maintained its climate commitments and pledged to contribute more in climate finance to other developing countries than the U.S. had committed to $3.1 billion compared with $3 billion. This time around, China is using leadership on climate change in ways that fit its broader strategy of gaining influence and economic power by supporting economic growth and cooperation in developing countries. Through its Belt and Road Initiative, China has scaled up renewable energy exports and development in other countries, such as investing in solar power in Egypt and wind energy development in Ethiopia. While China is still the worlds largest coal consumer, it has aggressively pursued investments in renewable energy at home, including solar, wind, and electrification. In 2024, about half the renewable energy capacity built worldwide was in China. While it missed the deadline to submit its climate pledge due this year, China has a goal of peaking its emissions before 2030 and then dropping to net-zero emissions by 2060. It is continuing major investments in renewable energy, both for its own use and for export. The U.S. government, in contrast, is cutting its support for wind and solar power. China also just expanded its carbon market to encourage emissions cuts in the cement, steel, and aluminum sectors. The British government has also ratcheted up its climate commitments as it seeks to become a clean energy superpower. In 2025, it pledged to cut emissions 77% by 2035 compared with 1990 levels. Its new pledge is also more transparent and specific than in the past, with details on how specific sectors, such as power, transportation, construction, and agriculture, will cut emissions. And it contains stronger commitments to provide funding to help developing countries grow more sustainably. In terms of corporate leadership, while many American businesses are being quieter about their efforts in order to avoid sparking the ire of the Trump administration, most appear to be continuing on a green pathdespite the lack of federal support and diminished rules. i and Statistas Americas Climate Leader List includes about 500 large companies that have reduced their carbon intensity (carbon emissions divided by revenue) by 3% from the previous year. The data shows that the list is growing, up from about 400 in 2023. What to watch at the 2025 climate talks The Paris Agreement isnt going anywhere. Given the agreements design, with each country voluntarily setting its own goals, the U.S. never had the power to drive it into obsolescence. The question is whether developed and developing country leaders alike can navigate two pressing needseconomic growth and ecological sustainabilitywithout compromising their leadership on climate change. This years U.N. climate conference in Brazil, COP30, will show how countries intend to move forward and, importantly, who will lead the way. Shannon Gibson is a professor of environmental studies, political science, and international relations at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Research assistant Emerson Damiano, a recent graduate in environmental studies at the University of Southern California, contributed to this article. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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After two decades as an industrial designer working on products like augmented reality glasses Lauryn Morris was ready for a change. I was really becoming jaded with the status quo of the linear economy, she says. Most products still take a one-way journey from raw materials to a landfill. Sustainabilityincluding what happens at a products end of lifeis usually an afterthought. Morris had seen the impact of climate change firsthand, when a wildfire in 2020 burned through a property that she and her husband own near Los Angeles. And she wanted to rethink her role as a designer. I wanted to not be part of the problem anymore, she says. I wanted to counter all of the waste that I was a part of over the last 20 years, and then show other people in the hardware world how we could challenge it and think differently. Lauryn Morris In 2023, she took a sabbatical to explore what she wanted to work on next. She took time to rechargeworking with her hands and spending time outsidewhile reading as much as she could about climate solutions. She went through the Climatebase fellowship, a 12-week accelerator program that helps professionals pivot to careers focused on climate. She could have taken several different paths. But she ended up taking inspiration from her own life: She loves driving vintage cars, and she wanted to find a way to help convert more existing cars on the road to EVs. Right now, EV conversions are typically custom projects. Morris had looked into converting her own car, a gas-guzzling 1975 Datsun, to electric. I started calling shops in Southern California and found two-year-long wait lists and really high price tags, she says. Auto shops do long, complicated, bespoke conversions and full restorations. Alternatively, there are companies that sell DIY kits for consumers to convert some models, like VW Beetles. But those hobbyist projects can also take months or years in a garage. [Photo: Dan Coronado/courtesy Nice] Its never really been interesting to me to do small projects, Morris says. Thats where the industry has been with gas-to-electric conversion. I wanted to take my experience working in mass production and apply principles of scale to reuse. How can we remanufacture things at scale? She saw the opportunity to make the idea of EV conversions mainstream. “I think that designers and product strategists are the missing key to make circularity more desirable and more normal for the way that we all consume products,” she says. While it’s not realistic to convert every car on the road to electric, Morris argues that conversions can make a “significant dent” in the adoption of EVs. She launched a startup called Nice (a reference to what people would say when they pulled up next to her vintage Datsun at traffic lights in L.A.: Nice car.) In 2024, the startup joined the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator to pilot the idea, starting with a 1987 Suzuki Samurai. The car is a cult favorite. Its really unique looking compared to modern vehicles, Morris says. Its a cute little boxy SUV. And its not rare. The idea is finding identical vehicles to convert in batches. [Photo: Dan Coronado/courtesy Nice] The company’s process involves doing R&D oncefiguring out where a battery and electric motor can fit, and the exact configuration neededand then repeating the process, making it both faster and more affordable. As the company moves forward, it will focus on cars that are newer and even more plentiful on the road, making it easier to scale. Currently the team is working on the first challenge: building the infrastructure to easily source used parts from retired Teslas or other electric cars. Our pilots with Suzuki Samurais proved the demand. People loved them,” Morris says. “I cant tell you how many people have reached out to have their Samurais converted. But the real bottleneck wasnt interest. It was infrastructure. When Nice converted its first two Samurais using the same process and parts, the cars performed differently because the second-life batteries they were using were different. “We found that the information we were able to get from the suppliers who were selling those second-life parts was very minimal,” Morris says. “There’s not a lot of transparency.” [Photo: Sarah Lyon/courtesy Nice] If you buy a used battery from a Tesla Model S, for example, you won’t know what year it was made or how it was used, from the climate it was driven in to how it was charged. More detailed diagnostics are possible but aren’t commonly used by resellers. So Morris is building a platform that can reclaim parts and certify their performance. Beyond cars, the second-life batteries can be used for energy storage. Some used EV batteries have enough life left to be a good fit for use in another car, while others are too drained but could still be used for years to store energy. [Photo: Sarah Lyon/courtesy Nice] “We’re seeing these two massive trends converge,” Morris says. “Hundreds of thousands of EVs are starting to age out of their warranty. The first wave of EVs is now retiring, and so there’s just this big wave of end-of-life EVs. Then we’re also seeing this exponential growth and demand for energy storage.” While others, like Redwood Materials, are beginning to use second-life batteries for large data centers, Nice plans to serve the thousands of commercial and industrial applications that need the same batteries but can’t easily source them. For most customers today, sourcing parts is still a game of guesswork and finger-crossing,” Morris says. “Thats the gap Im focused on closing as a founder: building the connective layer between salvage supply and second-life demand, and ensuring these assets are accessible, safe, and reliable far beyond EV conversions. The challenge, she says, is not so different than other projects she’s worked on in the past. “I just find it so fun and invigorating and energizing to learn about something really complex,” she says. “I didn’t get into augmented reality or head-worn computing knowing everything there is to know about computer vision and display technology, but you learn it along the way. It’s the same principle, where you study and understand the subject matter and think about what the goals are, what the value propositions are.” But Morris is more focused now on the bigger picture. “I realized that my role going forward in my career needs to be less about designing a new beautiful object and more about designing a system and looking at the value chain across all of these objects that we need in our lives,” she says. “There’s nothing wrong with these products being in our lives. But the people responsible for making themindustrial designers, engineersare uniquely positioned to advocate for challenging that status quo of linear thinking.”
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E-Commerce
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